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Permanent insurance refreshed

Discover more power and opportunity with Manulife Universal Life.

In late 2021, Manulife rolled out improvements to the Manulife Universal Life (Manulife UL) permanent life insurance solution. The streamlined product, alongside the addition of new online illustration software, makes it easier for customers to explore the many opportunities that Manulife UL offers. 

Manulife UL is a powerful solution designed to serve your clients in all life stages, including business owners, high-net-worth individuals and younger clients who are looking for coverage that grows with their needs. The unique features of Manulife UL give your clients flexibility and increased confidence – making it a comprehensive and competitive package for permanent insurance. 

 The refreshed product now offers: 

  • Access to the Performax Gold Investment Fund Account with a one per cent minimum interest rate, contractually guaranteed, alongside over 60 other investment options, for all policyholders
  • A new Yearly Renewable Term 85/20 cost of insurance (COI) type that allows you to effectively meet the needs of both younger and older clients with an all-in-one COI type.
  • Lower base insurance coverage amounts with a new minimum of $25,000

What hasn’t changed is that Manulife UL continues to provide compelling benefits compared to the competition, including:  

  • An additional one per cent of earned interest, through a rate enhancement* on Managed Accounts, over the rate your clients would earn on the linked mutual fund in the retail market
  • Competitive management fees, with no UL management fees on Managed Accounts
  • One of the widest ranges of investment options in the industry, including award-winning options, monitored by i-Watch, to increase your clients’ peace of mind and decrease risk
  • A smooth-yield investment fund that reduces volatility of its returns. Its designated fund has a solid track record of performance since 2007, and the full transparency of the fund adds to its credibility.
  • No policy fee or life fee
  • A comprehensive product with the potential to significantly increase account value over time

Three key competitive advantages

Manulife UL stands out from competitor products in three important ways. 

First, fees are among the lowest in the industry, with no management fee on Managed Accounts and no policy or life fees. For investment options that do have management fees, clients can get an offsetting rate enhancement of 1.0 per cent on equity and balanced Managed Accounts and 0.25 per cent on bond-based Managed Accounts. The rate enhancement on Manulife UL starts immediately, has no minimum requirement, and is contractually guaranteed. That means guaranteed higher returns than the corresponding designated retail fund. Your clients will benefit from low fees working in concert with unique rate enhancements to deliver performance today and over time. 

Second, the Performax Gold Investment Fund Account smooths its yield, so clients may experience less market volatility. Over the last 10 years, this has meant a standard deviation of less than 0.3 per cent, while the average smoothed yield from 2009 to 2021 was 4.3 per cent. You can illustrate returns of between 2.07 per cent and 3.07 per cent with a 90 per cent level of confidence. 

Third, Manulife UL offers a variety of investment accounts for your clients to choose from, depending on their risk tolerance and investment style. Hands-on investor? Choose, review and manage investments from more than 60 options, also monitored by i-Watch. The Performax Gold Investment Fund Account may be ideal for those who want a hands-off approach with historically stable returns. Or combine both management styles within the same Manulife policy. This range of options enables you to meet your clients’ evolving needs and preferences.

Innovative, easy to use digital tools 

Manulife Illustrations is designed to bring you and your clients the most up-to-date insurance illustrations, on the go. 

Here’s an example to illustrate how the rate enhancement** on Manulife UL works in concert with no UL management fee to build up the net rate of return (ROR).  Assume Manulife UL and two competitor products each offer an equity managed account with a rate of return (ROR) of 6.43 per cent, minus a fund MER of 2.43 per cent. So far, they’re all equal, with a 4.0 per cent return. However, subtracting the first competitors UL management fee of 1.5 per cent reduces its net illustrated rate to 2.5 per cent. Similarly, the other competitor product has a management fee of 3.0 per cent, resulting in a net illustrated rate lowered to 1.0 per cent. Now take the Manulife UL rate with no management fee, plus a rate enhancement of 1.0 per cent to get a total net illustrated ROR of 5.0 per cent.

Just as important, once you’ve got your illustration, it’s easy to connect to the Manulife e-application tool to complete the sale. 

Full package appeal

Overall, Manulife UL has broad appeal as a “full package” universal life solution that can provide the maximum amount of insurance coverage from day one, a wide selection of over 60 investment options with lower fees, in conjunction with smoothed yields through the Performax Gold Investment Fund Account, and lots of flexibility. More information is available here.  

* The rate enhancement is 1.0 per cent on equity and balanced Managed Accounts and 0.25 per cent on bond Managed Accounts.

** For illustration purposes only. Data as at November 2021. 

 

One product, one contract, two COI types

Manulife UL has moved from four products, four contracts and five cost of insurance types to: 

  • One consolidated product
  • One all-encompassing contract
  • Yearly Renewable Term 85/20 COI or Level COI to age 100

 Clients can choose to add the same T-10 or T-20 term insurance rider and child protection rider as before. 

Guarantees clients can count on

Manulife UL guarantees many aspects of your clients’ coverage, including: 

  • The rate enhancement on managed accounts* 
  • Fixed investment account management fees set on the day the policy is issued* 
  • The one per cent minimum interest guarantee on the Performax Gold Investment Fund Account

In addition, with Manulife UL, Indexed Accounts linked to the performance of the Canadian equity, U.S. equity and Canadian bond markets will always be available with a maximum daily management fee of 0.0046 per cent (about 1.15 per cent annually). 


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